Sarah Lawless

Dr Lawless is a human geographer specialising in marine governance and social justice. Her research advances socially responsible and equitable governance with a particular focus on ensuring the rights, needs, and interests of coastal peoples are upheld within marine policies, institutions, and interventions. Her research is grounded in political ecology and environmental justice and applicable to tropical coastal regions where human reliance on coastal ecosystems is high and the stakes of governance failure are greatest. Her current research examines the intersection of blue carbon governance and the land and sea rights of coastal and Indigenous peoples. Committed to research that extends beyond academic boundaries, Dr Lawless works directly with policymakers, practitioners, and coastal communities to ensure her findings inform and influence governance change.

Sarah’s research is supported by an AIMS@JCU fellowship. The AIMS@JCU program is a strategic partnership between JCU and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Sarah is the first social scientist engaged under this program, where she contributes to a key research area of common interest - improving governance of changing oceans. Sarah is a member of the Governing Ocean Change research program and SNAPP group. Here, Sarah joins an interdisciplinary team of scientist, government and non-government experts working toward governance transitions fit for novel and rapidly emerging interventions in climate-impacted oceans.